Will's Blog This is why you have internet filters

Geico fail: We won’t hire you but please buy our insurance

I was thinking the other day about a new problem for American businesses, people who have been turned down for jobs yet are solicited to use that same company's services.

Let me give an example ... a few months ago my mom applied to work at a phone bank for Geico. According to Geico, a woman who has sacrificed much of her adult life (two jobs, long hours ...) to provide for my well being while earning insultingly less than her male counterparts for the same work isn't qualified to work at their prestigious phone bank.

That really sucks because, well, phone banks hire anyone. Drug problems? You're hired. Trouble with English? You're hired. 2nd grade dropout? You're hired. Mental instability? You're hired. Felonies ... well as long as you didn't hurt anyone, you're hired. You get the point.

All my mom wanted to do was take daily abuse over the phone in exchange for a few bucks more than minimum wage but apparently Geico thinks she wouldn't do well (umm ... she raised me by herself, that deserves a medal).

As you can tell, my mom isn't happy with Geico. She's worked hard her entire life, never asking anyone for anything and she can't even get a job with a phone bank. Yes, my mom is nearly 60 but she's smarter and more dependable than her younger counterparts. People like my mom get shit done because unlike me they don't have Twitter, Facebook or other random shit to check throughout the day. Plus since she isn't in the party-hard phase of her life, showing up at 9am isn't a challenge.

You'd think Geico would have a computer program to audit their mailing list and say "Okay we declined to hire this person for a job they are completely overqualified for ... let's not add insult to injury by sending a bunch of junk mail asking them to buy our insurance." Nope. Every week the little green gecko shows up in her mail asking her to switch her car insurance. It makes my mom angry and understandably so ... she's constantly ignored / rejected for everything she applies for (due to age) and has a lot to worry about. The last thing she needs is a reminder of how invisible the 55+ crowd really is in our current economy.

Geico, I hope you understand that your weekly postcards aren't ads, they're corporate America's little way of saying fuck you to the unsung and unemployed heroes whose corporate service has been forgotten as they're lumped into the old age pool.